


Episode IX: Rise of the Galaxy

by fictionalverity



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: #ReleaseTheRianJohnsonCut, Alternate Episode IX, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode IX rewrite, Finn Deserved Better, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Ghosts, Gen, Kylo Ren gets dunked on but it's for his own good, Lightsaber Battles, Mostly Gen, Palpatine is all the way dead, Rey is Not a Palpatine, Rose Tico Deserved Better, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It, Stormtrooper Rebellion, the Jedi need to evolve
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:42:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24657781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictionalverity/pseuds/fictionalverity
Summary: Finn and Poe set out to spark a stormtrooper rebellion. Kylo Ren comes face to face with his grandfather. Rey searches for newly awakened Force users—and for answers about what it means to be a Jedi. With the final battle approaching, the Resistance's only hope is that they're not alone. To defeat the First Order and restore balance to the Force, the galaxy must rise.(Or: killThe Rise of Skywalker, and let this rewrite be born. Updates are slow, but I'm committed to seeing this through.)
Relationships: Chewbacca & Ben Solo, Finn & Rey (Star Wars), Leia Organa & Ben Solo, Poe Dameron & Finn, Poe Dameron & Finn & Rey, Poe Dameron/Finn, Ransolm Casterfo & Rose Tico, Ransolm Casterfo/Rose Tico, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 10
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

The final battle approaches.  
As the ruthless FIRST ORDER  
tightens its grip on the  
galaxy, hundreds of ordinary  
people sense the power of  
the Force. Determined to crush  
the new threat to his rule,  
Supreme Leader KYLO REN  
summons the infamous  
KNIGHTS OF REN to his side.

The First Order has imprisoned  
many friends of the brave  
RESISTANCE, preventing them  
from answering GENERAL LEIA  
ORGANA's desperate call for aid.  
Having learned one prison's  
location, the Resistance arrives  
to set their allies free....

#

The twin suns above the planet Halcyon burn Rey's shoulders, and bone-dry wind covers her in rock dust from the nearby sparkstone mine. Rey hardly notices, mostly because three dozen stormtroopers are chasing her.

Blaster bolts whistle past her ears as she runs over the rocky plain. Behind her, the heavy tread of a stormtrooper's boots comes closer, then closer still.

Rey turns just long enough to wield her lightsaber like her old staff, thwacking at the stormtrooper's shoulder. But no reactive force travels up the blade when she strikes. For all her arm knows, she's slicing through empty space. Only the Force and a shout of pain tell her otherwise.

She keeps running. Her fallen opponent was the fastest, but the others are close on his heels. Just a little farther, and they'll be out of sight of the First Order's labor camp.

The Force bond flares to life. Of course it does. "Rey. Where are you?"

Rey pushes Ben—no, _Kylo Ren_ —as far from her senses as possible. "Not your concern!"

"Lord Vader's presence. I can't feel it." He's pacing the perimeter of a small white room, where a pedestal displays the twisted wreck of Darth Vader's helmet. The ragged edge of his lightsaber beam flickers and burns.

Rey comes to the edge of a shallow canyon, leaps to the bottom, and sprints toward the nearest overhang. If Kylo Ren sees the twin suns, he'll be able to narrow down their location.

The stormtroopers follow, blasters raised. Rey tucks into a roll and comes up in their midst, so they can't shoot at her without hitting each other. She ignites her lightsaber, reforged from the shattered remnants of Luke's old saber. Its beam is deep blue, like the ocean on Ahch-To.

She calls the Force to her aid, and it answers. She's more fluid now, as graceful as she can ever be. One by one, her opponents fall.

Rey almost forgets Kylo Ren is there. Fortunately, he's paying even less attention to her. His eyes dart around the white room as though Darth Vader might pop out of the wall. "It's been months. Ever since you left, his guidance, his strength, it's just gone. If he's spoken to you—"

With more force than necessary, Rey slices a stormtrooper's blaster in half. "Oh, _shut up!_ It was obviously Snoke!"

Kylo goes absolutely still. "What?"

His turmoil is plain in the taut lines of his face, and more so in the roiling chaos of the Force around him. Rey presses her back against the wall beneath the overhang and refuses to answer.

The remaining stormtroopers fall back and start shooting again. Worse, two of them peel away from the group and climb out of the canyon. Have they realized she's just the distraction?

Moving her lips as little as possible, Rey says into her comm, "Two heading back to the camp."

" _Copy that. I'm in the mine._ " Poe sounds confident, but when doesn't he? Next, Chewbacca's rumble: he and Finn have reached the hangar. Her friends are all right for now.

Kylo says, "It can't have been."

Rey deflects eight blaster bolts in rapid succession. "He went when your lying master died, so..." She bites back a hundred other things she wants to say. She said all of it. He felt all of it through their strange, unwanted bond. And still, he chose the dark side.

The bond goes quiet again. Rey takes a deep breath, centering herself in the Force, and turns all her concentration to the fight.

#

In the shadow of the hangar at the labor camp's edge, Finn stands in front of the security keypad on the side door and cracks his knuckles. "Okay. Break into the hangar, blow up the mining equipment, get ships ready to go. We can do this."

Chewbacca humphs but doesn't say anything. Finn flinches. He's not sure Chewie has forgiven him, Poe, and Rose for the disaster on the _Raddus_ , and he'd rather face Phasma again than ask.

He taps eight digits into the keypad. The indicator light blinks red. "It's fine," Finn tells Chewie. "Stormtroopers get reassigned a lot, so we memorize a list of codes. Low-priority First Order keypads use a code from the list. This will only take a minute."

It takes more than a minute. Finn punches numbers into the security keypad with increasingly desperate jabs. "The codes aren't working." Chewie roars a question. "No, I can't go faster!"

Something is off about the feel of the buttons. Finn takes his hand away and takes another look at the keypad. His stomach sinks. "I don't think this is a First Order keypad."

Behind them, a smug male voice says, "You're right. Put your hands in the air and turn around."

Finn closes his eyes briefly and complies. The five humanoids with blasters trained on him and Chewie are in blue uniforms, so definitely not First Order. An Abednedo with brown mottled skin and dangling mouth tendrils stands to the side. He's in civilian clothes, but he's assessing Finn and Chewie, weighing the danger, while the ones in uniform are tense but still. Finn knows that look: executing one command, waiting for the next one, and trying not to think too much in between.

The Abednedo pulls out a comm: "Send an urgent message to General Armitage Hux. Our security team has captured three Resistance criminals."

Finn's stomach twists. "Three?"

Poe comes around the corner, hands raised. Another blue uniform keeps a blaster between Poe's shoulder blades, prodding him forward. "Found this one sneaking around the mines, talking to the prisoners."

"Did any of them listen?" said the Abednedo.

"They'll be punished as needed, sir."

Finn swallows hard. They're going to die, and the people they were trying to save are just going to get hurt. He's failed the Resistance again. At least Rey and Rose are still free.

Poe meets his gaze and actually smiles. "Well, this is embarrassing."

Finn relaxes by a hair. As long as Poe can still smile like that, there has to be some hope left.

Poe's captor jabs him with the blaster. "Quiet, you."

 _Quiet_ is not a word in Poe Dameron's lexicon. "Let me guess. The First Order keeps prisoners here, you get slave labor, and everyone turns a profit."

The Abednedo strokes his mouth tendrils, thoughtful. "I've had workers like you. A decade or two in the mines always calms them down."

Finn says quietly to Chewie, "Good thing Rose stayed with the _Falcon_. She'd kill this guy." Chewie rumbles, and Finn inclines his head. "Fair point."

Two stormtroopers sprint up to their little group. The Abednedo whirls to face them, black eyes bulging. "Where are the others? The First Order promised that thirty stormtroopers would guard this facility at all times!"

"Sorry, sir. They're engaging a high-priority target. We have orders to shoot these criminals on sight."

The stormtroopers raise their blasters. Poe's smile vanishes. With all the courage he has left, Finn keeps his chin level. He meets Chewie's gaze, then Poe's. "Rebel scum."

Chewie roars. Poe closes his raised hands into fists. "Rebel scum."

The stormtroopers fire—and the blue uniforms drop like dead ships.

Their boss turns and runs, but Chewie isn't having it. He scoops up the nearest blaster and shoots the Abednedo squarely in the back.

Finn takes one slow step toward the stormtroopers. These could be Resistance fighters in disguise... but maybe they aren't. Maybe they're like him.

The stormtrooper on his left takes off the white helmet, revealing a human female with regulation-short orange hair. "You're FN-2187." Her voice is soft with wonder, like he's some kind of hero, and even Finn's considerable doubts on that score can't keep his grin down. "Will you take us with you?"

"Absolutely," Finn says at once. Then he remembers. "Any ideas about how to get all the prisoners out of the mine?"

Poe lays a hand on Finn's arm. "Shh! Do you hear that?"

The group falls silent, drinking in the sound of hundreds of people singing.

Poe's eyes are wide, his face alight. "I think they got out on their own." He snaps into command mode: "Chewie and Finn, you know the plan. New kids, get us into the hangar and do whatever Finn says. Rey, Rose, did you hear all that?"

" _On my way back now. Six minutes, maybe seven._ "

" _Yep! Ready for takeoff and waiting on your signal._ "

The orange-haired stormtrooper lets them into the hangar. While Chewie plants explosives around the mining equipment, Poe boards the largest freighter and starts readying it for takeoff. Finn finds the hangar controls and presses a few buttons. With a high-pitched creak, the main door retracts upward, revealing blue skies, a dusty plain, and two hundred freed prisoners. They cheer, wild and joyous, and a bright, open feeling sweeps through him, lighter than anything. Finn lets out a loud whoop and punches the air.

Rey joins them in the hangar. She isn't hurt, just out of breath and weirdly crabby. Between the three of them, they have two big ships up and running just as Chewie wires the last bomb. The prisoners stream onto the ships, holding up the ones who can't walk very well and carrying the little kids. Rey takes the controls of the first ship, and Chewie takes the second. "Rose," Poe says, "bring the _Falcon_ around. We're going home."

#

The Resistance's new base is on Ajan Kloss, deep within a jungle. The _Falcon_ and the two transport ships touch down in the starfighter landing zone near the limestone cave where they've made camp.

Rey is the first one off her transport. Other Resistance officers step up to handle the welcomes and directions, much to her relief. She's too shaken from her encounter with Kylo Ren to be cheerful for strangers.

As the liberated prisoners disembark, Poe watches them with a slight crease between his eyebrows. "How many do we have now?" Rey says.

"About six hundred, counting the new arrivals."

"That's good, isn't it?"

The crease deepens. "Yeah, if we can feed them."

Rey squares her shoulders. "We'll forage. _No one_ will go hungry."

A few meters away, Finn and the other ex-stormtroopers head toward the camp. The three of them spent the entire trip home in deep conversation, and no wonder. Finn can talk to them about a time in his life he still hasn't shared with her, just like she's been pretty quiet about Jakku. Some things are too hard to explain, especially if they were ordinary at the time.

BB-8 rolls up to Poe, trilling happily. Three porgs hop in the droid's wake. "Beebee-Ate!" Poe kneels to hug the little droid. "How's Leia?"

BB-8 beeps a much longer and more detailed answer than Rey expected. Rey crouches down to Poe's eye level, so no one will overhear. "That's why you left him behind, isn't it? To look after her."

Poe blows out a short breath and bows his head. Now he's not hugging BB-8 so much as bracing himself. The droid holds unusually still. "She looks like she's fading."

Rey nods reluctantly. She's felt it herself.

"We gotta take on as much of this as we can." Poe waves his arm to take in Ajan Kloss, the Resistance, the whole war. "Let Leia save her strength. We can't lose her, Rey."

She puts a hand on his shoulder. "I know."

Motion blurs in her peripheral vision. Rey is up and in a fighting stance when she recognizes Lieutenant Connix dashing across the landing zone, headed straight for her and Poe. "Rey! Something's happened."

That can't be good. "What is it?"

Poe rises too, tension boiling off him. "Is it the General?"

Connix shakes her head. Last time Rey saw her, the Lieutenant wore her blonde hair in two buns. Now she keeps it in braids close against her head, like Leia's. "She's fine. This isn't even bad! At least, I don't think it is."

"Connix," Poe snaps. " _Report_."

"Right. Sorry. Maz Kanata is here. She's heard stories from a hundred worlds, and more are coming in. Stories about people moving objects with their mind, dreaming about the future, healing injuries just by wanting it."

Ajan Kloss is never cold, but Rey turns to ice. "The Force."

Connix nods, wide-eyed. "Maz told them that you could help."

"Oh," Rey says faintly.

"She said to come talk to her when you're ready."

"I will. Thank you."

Rey makes herself walk slowly toward the treeline and into the jungle. As soon as she's out of sight of the landing zone, she breaks into a run. A hundred people with the Force waking up inside them, destiny landing on them like a dreadnought, and a thousand questions each. They'll want answers from _her_.

She leaps over fallen trees and dodges low-hanging branches. She's holding onto the Force, but just barely. It's slippery today, repelled by her fear. She can't possibly do this.

An ancient, decaying tree trunk blocks her path. Rey jumps, the Force slips from her grasp, and she lands in a heap on the jungle floor. "Oof!"

A magenta beetle the size of her palm scuttles away—luckier than its friend, which is now a beetle pancake on Rey's tunic. With a whispered apology, Rey peels it away and lays it in the undergrowth. She pulls herself into a sitting position, plops her head into her hands, and groans.

Soft but steady footsteps approach her, bringing a half-familiar, friendly presence along. "Hello, Rey."

Rey doesn't raise her head. "I thought you said to talk to you when I was ready."

Maz Kanata sits, effortlessly folding into a lotus pose. "Eh, close enough."

"I can't help these people. Luke barely had a chance to train me before..." Before she ran to Kylo Ren, stupidly thinking she could save him.

"That's all right." Rey looks up hopefully, but Maz isn't smiling. "I'm sure Kylo Ren will tell them everything they want to know."

Rey shudders. "I don't want that, either. But I don't have many answers, and the ones I do have feel wrong."

Maz tilts her head. "Say more."

"I've been reading the books from the Jedi temple." Late at night, Finn and Poe help her with the longer words and the older scripts, but that's between the three of them. "They say a Jedi must let go of attachments, but I was alone for so long." Rey's voice breaks. "That _can't_ be true."

Rey didn't mean to ever say that aloud. On one hand, millennia of wisdom. On the other, a half-trained scavenger. She curls in on herself and waits for Maz's reprimand.

Instead, Maz stands and stretches one small hand toward a brightflyer. The insect's wide, luminescent wings are opals in the jungle's emerald green, patterned with a web of delicate black veins. "When we find our own families, we hold them close. Without mine... ha! I wouldn't know how to live."

"I won't either." It felt normal once. Maybe it will again. But that idea scares Rey even more.

Maz hums thoughtfully. "The books say one thing. Your heart says another. Perhaps you should see what the Force has to say."

The brightflyer lands on Maz's finger, wings moving gently but otherwise still. Balanced.

The weight on Rey's chest eases a little. She lowers her voice, so as not to frighten the brightflyer away. "I'll try."

With her free hand, Maz pats Rey on the shoulder. "I have faith in you."

Rey supposes someone has to.

The conversation seems over. Rey stands, then remembers she has one more question. "When I met you for the first time, why did you have Luke's lightsaber?"

Maz lets the brightflyer go. "A good question," she says, just like when Han asked. Rey swallows a lump in her throat. "Luke came into the trading post covered in soot, looking like he hadn't slept in days. He asked about maps."

"Looking for the Jedi temple," Rey says softly. Luke must have come straight from the ruins of his training temple, where he lost Ben Solo to the Dark side.

"Though he carried the lightsaber, I could see he had cut himself off from the Force. I told him how strange that was. Luke said..." Maz furrows her brow, gives a cynical snort, and says in a gravelly voice, " _Last time I tried to use this thing, I lost a hand._ " Back to her own mien: "Not only that, he said he'd given up the Force for good. Since he wouldn't need the lightsaber, I stole it."

Part of Rey will always be nine years old on Jakku, wearing a scavenged Rebel helmet all day despite the heat, and that part is _appalled_. "You _stole a lightsaber_ from _Luke Skywalker?_ "

Maz just smiles. "If he changed his mind, he would come back. Or someone else would come along who needed it more." She reaches over and taps Rey's lightsaber. "They always find their way home."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _The Rise of Skywalker_ was an enormous letdown. I went from mulling over how I might have done it better to actually sitting down and writing this. I chose to work within the same constraints, minus an unfathomably huge corporation Vader-breathing down my neck. That is, I've been faithful to Episodes VII and VIII, and where possible, I borrowed additional plot elements, places, and characters from canon. Also, Leia will only make small appearances that could plausibly be CGI. Every time I remember that Carrie Fisher is gone, my heart hurts again, so this is probably for the best.
> 
> [A few more notes are on my tumblr.](https://fictionalverity.tumblr.com/post/622831069683646464/fic-meta-rise-of-the-galaxy-chapter-1-notes) Next time: Kylo Ren has a very bad day.


	2. Chapter 2

Kylo Ren sits at the base of Lord Vader's pedestal, hand hovering over the helmet, trying in vain to catch even a flicker of Vader's presence. In the next room, his comm suite chimes: someone is contacting him with a holo. The chimes stop and then start again.

With mingled annoyance and relief, Kylo steps away from the pedestal and gestures at the comm suite. An image of Captain Phasma's head and shoulders hovers in front of the controls. "Phasma. You're looking well." _Looking_ isn't quite the right word, since she's still wearing her silver armor. "I heard the doctor who healed your injuries suffered an accident."

"Yes, Supreme Leader. She tripped and fell onto my blaster rifle, which discharged into her head. Most unfortunate."

"It's strange that our finest surgeon would be so clumsy."

"Everyone who takes off my armor has that failing."

Kylo rather likes Phasma. "I doubt you contacted me to discuss your recovery."

"No, Supreme Leader. Earlier today, there was an incident at a First Order-sponsored mine on Halcyon. Two hundred prisoners escaped, and two stormtroopers deserted. They were helped by Resistance fighters, including FN-2187 and the Jedi Rey."

Kylo despises Phasma. "Why wasn't I informed of this at the time?"

"General Hux's orders, sir. He is... unsure of the nature of your relationship with the girl."

Hux. Of course. "Send him to the throne room at once."

After the destruction of the _Supremacy_ , Kylo ordered the construction of a new throne room on the _Finalizer_. His version is smaller than Snoke's was, and he looms larger for it. Symbols of the Knights of Ren slash the obsidian walls. The throne itself is lacquered in red, as are the narrow steps leading up to it.

Hux takes a good half-hour to arrive. His stupid power games give Kylo more time to settle onto the throne with a datapad, arrange his cloak just so, and review the reports on the Halcyon incident.

When Hux deigns to show his pasty face, Kylo demands a report and half-listens to Hux tell him why everything is someone else's fault. "Tell me something, Hux. When was the last time rank-and-file soldiers defeated a Jedi?"

Hux swallows visibly. "I don't follow, Supreme Leader."

"You don't remember, and neither do I. You should have contacted me immediately. Allowing stormtroopers to attack her was a waste of First Order personnel—"

"They're stormtroopers, Supreme Leader. We have more." Hux's sneer isn't nearly as impressive as he thinks it is.

"Do not interrupt me." Only after Hux mutters his apologies does Kylo continue. "A brain-damaged Ewok could have told you she'd escape them."

"The military is under _my_ purview. Whatever you think of my judgment—"

Kylo leans forward, gripping the arms of the throne the way he'd like to crush Hux's throat. "Your _judgment_ let our highest-priority target skip back to the Resistance with two hundred new allies. Your _judgment_ drove your own soldiers to leave with her."

"Two out of the entire company," Hux snaps.

"Six, actually." This is a total lie, but humiliating Hux is worth sowing a little confusion.

Hux's face turns a hideous shade of mauve. "The other four. What are their designations?"

In a parody of nonchalance, Kylo relaxes back onto the throne. "Oh, does that concern you?" He puts on Hux's Imperial accent: "They're stormtroopers. We have more."

Kylo avoids using expressions that he learned from Han Solo on principle, but Hux is literally _spitting mad_. "Supreme Leader..." Hux gulps in air and keeps going. "I fear you are losing sight of the priorities required to win this war."

"Losing sight?" With a twist of his hand, Kylo calls on the Dark, lifting Hux two feet above the ground and pressing hard on his windpipe. He stares into Hux's watering eyes, probing the man's mind as Snoke taught him. He's good at this. He's succeeded every time, or all but one. "I see everything, Hux. Your vanity. Your entitlement. And under all of it, your certainty that you will never, _ever_ be enough."

An unseen light shifts, and every ugly facet of Armitage Hux's mind becomes an unforgiving mirror.

Kylo Ren flinches. He drops Hux, who collapses in a gasping, shivering heap. "Dismissed."

As Hux crawls away, the hangar bay sends the message Kylo has been waiting for. "Supreme Leader, the Knights of Ren have arrived."

#

Kylo doesn't greet his fellow Knights from the throne. They've known him for too long, and besides, political power isn't the kind they care about. Instead, he waits in a smaller receiving room with a view of the stars and comfortable chairs artfully arranged. When the six other Knights of Ren are seated, a casual observer might think Kylo is simply first among equals, but they all know better.

At least, Kylo thinks they do. But the others are watching him more intently than he remembers, with an eagerness he dislikes—as though he's prey, and not more dangerous than all of them combined.

Vicrul Ren breaks the silence. "You're moving up in the world." The reptilian skin of his coat shimmers like oil on water. He wears a helmet that hides his face, as all the Knights do—except Kylo, now—but the whole room can hear his smirk.

Kylo keeps his face impassive. "I hope you're not surprised, Vicrul."

"Nah, I'm just curious. How did you kill Snoke?" When Kylo doesn't immediately respond, Vicrul continues, "You did kill him, right? Because the official story is that a grubby little scavenger killed all his bodyguards, knocked you out, assassinated Snoke, and escaped unharmed. Pretty humiliating, if it's true."

Their strange behavior makes sense now. The Knights of Ren despise weakness, and they think he's shown it. "The rest of the First Order isn't like us. Snoke died by my hand, but saying so would just alarm them. Until we've crushed the Resistance, I want their focus where it belongs."

Cardo Ren took the second-biggest chair in the room, but it barely contains his enormous body. He snorts softly. "It sounds like they don't fear you enough."

"For now, I'd rather use a bit of guile. Once the Resistance is gone..." Kylo holds his lightsaber in front of him and ignites it. "I can terrify them as much as I want."

No one is foolish enough to question that. Kylo sheathes his lightsaber and lifts a hand, bending the Force to wrap his raw power around them all. "For thirteen years, I have ruled the Knights of Ren by right of victory. I call on you to fulfill our ancient oaths and obey me now." The Knights drop to their knees. Good. "Cardo, Trudgen, and Ushar, you'll remain with me as my guards. Ap'lek, Kuruk, and Vicrul, I want you to investigate the reports of new Force users on First Order-controlled worlds. Start with the ones of fighting age. The others won't be useful to either side."

Ap'lek Ren speaks from the back corner of the room. His patchwork mask is made from shards of his enemies' broken armor. "What should we do with the ones we find?"

Kylo allows himself a slight smile. "It's the same as always. They can prove they're worthy of joining us, or they can die."

#

Ushar Ren takes the first shift as Kylo's bodyguard. Outside the door to his quarters, Kylo says, "You'll be stationed here. If anything seems amiss, no matter how minor, tell me at once."

"Okay," Ushar says. He follows Kylo inside and shuts the door behind them.

Ushar is the oldest living Knight of Ren, with a rasping voice and oxy-tubes threading through his helmet. At his left temple, the helmet is crumpled inward, the remnant of a powerful blow, and his black armor bears a thousand scars from battle. Kylo's clothes are pristine in comparison. He might be stronger than the other Knights, but he still feels soft. Exposed.

"Get me some caf," Ushar tells the server droid in the corner. The droid rolls to him with a steaming mug. Ushar dumps the contents into a funnel at his throat and grunts in approval. "I guess Supreme Leaders get the good stuff."

Kylo stands straighter and sharpens his voice. "Do you want something, Ushar?"

"I've got one more question. Didn't think you'd want the others to hear."

Curious in spite of himself, Kylo nods his permission.

Stray drops of caf roll down Ushar's armor. He brushes them away. "This First Order business... what's in it for you?"

Kylo raises his eyebrows. "Other than ruling the galaxy?"

Ushar either doesn't notice the sarcasm or ignores it. "Well, yeah. Out of the whole galaxy, maybe a hundred people care who leads the First Order, and most of them are on this ship."

"It doesn't sound like you're one of them," Kylo observes.

"Because I'm not First Order, and neither are you. We're the Knights of Ren. We take what we want, and we kill whoever tries to keep it from us. Your mama could be the Most High Galactic Queen and it wouldn't change that. She's nothing to do with you." Kylo's gaze strays through another doorway to the room where Darth Vader's cracked, warped helmet rests on its pedestal. In a fluid motion, Ushar shifts to block his view. "None of them are."

"Lord Vader began the great work of conquering the galaxy for the dark side." Kylo might be echoing something Snoke once said, but what does it matter? Everything that was Snoke's is his now. "I'm going to finish it. I'll blot out every spark of light—"

Ushar _laughs_. He holds out his gloved hands, palms up, and mimes a tilting scale. "Darkness, light—neither one means a thing without the other. Now, the clash..." He slams his hands together. "That's where the fun is. But you already know that, don't you? It's who you are."

The truth of it reverberates in Kylo's mind, and helpless rage surges through him. The ceiling lights flicker. Reminders of his conquests vibrate on their shelves. The cup in Ushar's hand shatters, though the Knight remains still, impervious.

Kylo will never be free. The light and the darkness will rip him apart until he dies. A slice of him will always be a stupid, pathetic child who wants his father back.

"Leave me," he grits out. Ushar obeys.

Out of long habit, Kylo goes to Lord Vader's helmet and stands before it. The room stops shaking, and the lights glow steadily again. But Vader says nothing.

_It was obviously Snoke._

"Rey is wrong," Kylo Ren tells Darth Vader's cracked, warped helmet, which sits in its place of honor on the pedestal at the room's center. "You're real, and you would never abandon me. You taught me so much. Soon I'll achieve everything you dreamed of."

He paces around the white room. Next time he sees Rey, he'll tell her in no uncertain terms why she is wrong. Any moment now, the reason will become clear. "Why would I listen to her? She worships Skywalker. She spent fifteen years believing in _imaginary parents_ who would never—"

Kylo stops short. He stares hard at the helmet. The holes that once held optical lenses stare back like a skull's eye sockets.

"If you're there..." A Sith Lord won't be pleased to hear him beg, but he doesn't know how else to say it. "Please let me hear your voice once more."

He watches the helmet and waits for the tiniest flicker of a presence. Nothing.

No one is coming back for him.

With a hoarse scream of rage and despair, Kylo ignites his lightsaber and slices the pedestal once, then again before the pieces can fall. Vader's helmet clatters to the ground, but doesn't break. He picks it up and hurls it against the wall, where it shatters with a _crack_.

Behind him, an unfamiliar presence breaks into slow, sarcastic applause.

Who would dare? Kylo whirls, snarling, lightsaber raised high.

The stranger is a Force ghost: a man limned in soft light, with wavy brown hair framing a pale, oddly familiar face. He wears the brown and white robes of a Jedi. Kylo keeps his lightsaber ready, for all the good it will do. "Who are you?"

The ghost crouches to examine the broken helmet, as though checking that a fallen enemy is truly dead. "I've been waiting for thirteen years for you to figure it out."

Kylo sheathes his lightsaber and steps forward to get a better look. His uncle's eyes, a masculine echo of his mother's nose: no, the familiarity isn't strange at all. It's a knife to his gut. "Anakin Skywalker."

His grandfather goes on as if he hadn't spoken. "Thirteen years of watching you walk on the edge of a chasm, inches away from facing the monster you've become. But you're like I was. Eight billion people died on Alderaan, and what did I do? I stood by. I watched. I told myself I had the right."

The Force opens a window into the past: Alderaan, blue and green; a deadly beam of light, and the conflagration of a world. Leia Organa watches, younger than Kylo or even Rey, as the Death Star kills her home. Her grief rises like an oncoming storm, bearing down on the Empire's heart...

Kylo clings to Ushar Ren's words. _She's nothing to do with you._ "What do you want?"

Anakin's shoulders hunch. The helmet's largest shard floats just above his hand. "Do you know why I waited until the last moment of my life to turn back to the Light?"

"Because it was stupid?" Kylo ventures. The story was supposed to be a lie, a fairytale ending that Luke Skywalker used to make the Dark look weak. Vader wasn't supposed to be like this.

Anakin's hands clasp Kylo's face, undeniable. His self-loathing roils Kylo's stomach, and a chorus of all the people he has ever been rasps and screams: "Because that deep, true part of me was still a disgusting coward! I could die for my mistakes. I couldn't live with them."

Kylo keeps still, curiosity dampening his fear. It's like when he saw Rey through the Force bond for the first time, some instinct outside Light or Dark telling him to _look_. "And yet, here you are."

The ghost pulls back, regarding Kylo with... disappointment? It's familiar, at least. "Here I am, dead and broken, watching the last of my family slouch toward his own destruction."

Past and present are all jumbled in Kylo's mind. His mother is old and young and grieving and fighting and shouting at Solo and holding Kylo close and forgetting to call. He doesn't want to ask, but he has to. "The last?"

"Oh. Sorry. Time, you know." Anakin looks like Leia did on the Death Star, watching Alderaan explode. "Not yet, but soon."

It's useful intelligence for the war. It might change their strategy. Anakin has played right into Kylo's hands. The thoughts drift across his mind, not quite taking hold.

"You should go to her," Anakin says. "Dark or Light. She wants to see you."

It's ludicrous enough to bring Kylo back to himself. "You think I'm an idiot. Solo didn't come for me. He came when I threatened the New Republic. I'm sure Organa thought he was wasting his time. And that was before I killed"— _my father—_ "her husband."

"Oh, yes, you're sure. But why ask her about it when you can blindly believe Snoke?"

Kylo has no answer.

"Look, it's not... I know you're capable of more." Anakin's voice is soft as a callused hand on Kylo's face, and he's _still talking_. Kylo shuts his eyes. "Killing Snoke, that was brave. It wasn't entirely about power. You did it to set yourself free."

Kylo draws in on himself. "There's no difference."

Silence.

"There _isn't,_ " Kylo repeats. For reasons he refuses to think about too deeply, he needs Anakin to argue back. But when he opens his eyes, Anakin Skywalker is gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes for this chapter are on [my tumblr](https://fictionalverity.tumblr.com/post/627303613998546944/fic-meta-rise-of-the-galaxy-chapter-2-notes). Next time: Rose makes a friend, Finn and Poe make a plan, and Maz Kanata makes a suggestion.


	3. Chapter 3

Though Finn would never admit it, the Resistance's scruffy appearance was half the reason he took so long to really join. In his old life, strength came from order. Every surface gleamed with cleanliness, and every interaction followed a protocol. The Resistance is... not that.

As Finn leads his new friends along the path to the camp, they pick their way around stumps, and brambles scrape their white armor. Their faces are impassive, but he'd bet his jacket they're thinking the same thing he did: _these people can't possibly win._ "I cleared this myself. It was way overgrown when we first landed, so Rose stuck some blades on an AT-AT and I just..." With a sweeping motion, he pushes imaginary trees out of the way.

ZR-3155, the stormtrooper with orange hair, purses her lips. "It's—a good effort."

Finn makes himself meet her eyes. "I know it's not pretty. The Resistance doesn't do pretty. We don't have a second to spare on anything that won't help us win."

The other stormtrooper, DL-4726, has dark hair and cheekbones like knives. Her thick eyebrows draw together. "Then why did you come to Halcyon? Half those prisoners can't even fight."

Not long ago, Finn would have struggled to answer her. Then, Rose saved him on Crait and made it blindingly clear. "If we leave our friends to die, winning won't matter."

At the end of the path, they come to the _Tantive IV_ , formerly a diplomatic cruiser, now the Resistance's listening post, dormitory, and primary power source. The ship is partially hidden among green fronds and flowers the size of Finn's head. ZR-3155's eyebrows climb to her hairline. "Your camp is a starship."

Finn can't blame her. "Just part of it. Come on!"

Beneath the ship's cockpit, a perfect circle of durasteel is embedded in the soil. "Open door," Finn says. "Password, Hosnian Prime, 23 times 10 expo 9."

DL-4726 swallows visibly. "The planet we destroyed, and the number dead."

Finn nods. "Yeah."

"How can they accept us?" Her voice trembles. "You're different. You got out before that. We all knew what Starkiller Base would do. It was right there in the name! And we still—"

The circle's halves fold up and outward, revealing a deep hole in the ground.

"Hey." Finn touches DL-4726's arm lightly. "You're making a different choice now. That's what matters."

"But—"

ZR-3155 takes her hand and holds on tight. "Come on. There's only one way to find out."

Narrow, twisting metal stairs take them down into the dark. The rock walls on either side almost touch Finn's shoulders, and each light built into the walls is a spot of warmth on the side of his head. Finn hates it so, so much. "We have elevators on the other end of the camp, but General Organa asked us to take the stairs when we can, to save power." Half to himself, he adds, "We're almost there."

The rock walls on either side of the stairs curve up and outward. At the first sight of the Resistance camp below, one of the stormtroopers gasps softly—and just like that, Finn can see through their eyes again.

The camp is in a limestone cave as big as the hangar on the _Supremacy_ , where he and Rose almost died, but the similarity ends there. The Resistance's lights give the walls an orange tint and show where the limestone formed columns along the walls, like pipes. Stalactites and stalagmites hang from the ceiling and stretch up from the floor. Brightflyers with broad white wings glide through the vast space, giving off an ethereal glow.

Finn's never seen anything like it, even in pictures. He didn't even know something this beautiful could exist.

They reach the bottom of the stairs. The scent of turmeric drifts from the mess area. Even through DL-4726's armor, Finn hears her stomach rumble. With feeling, she says, "That smells _amazing_."

"It's in honor of the new arrivals." Before DL-4726 can start worrying again, Finn adds, "And that includes you."

"I thought you said the Resistance didn't do pretty," ZR-3155 says. Finn's all set to get excited about the cave with her, but then he follows her gaze to Poe. He's striding along the center of the room, clapping backs and praising the other officers' work as he goes. BB-8 rolls in his wake.

"That's Commander Dameron. He's, uh, really busy." Finn isn't sure where this weird urge to protect Poe comes from. It's not that he's worried about Poe, exactly, but...

For the first time, ZR-3155 cracks a smile. "Calm down, FN-2187. I'm not about to flirt with a superior officer."

Finn changes the subject. "You both should know, you don't have to go by your designations anymore. You can take whatever name you want."

"Organa!" ZR-3155 says at once.

Finn winces. "Maybe not that." ZR-3155's face falls. Quickly, he goes on, "It's a great name! Just confusing. So, I used to be FN-2187, right? But ever since I left the First Order, I've been Finn."

"It suits you," DL-4726 says. "What should my name be?"

Finn grins at her. "You get to pick."

ZR-3155 chooses Zarisa, a bright name that fits with her orange hair. When DL-4726 names herself Delya, some of her anxiety fades. Finn hopes what he says next won't bring it back. "Come this way. General Organa wants to meet you."

#

The main cave is livelier than it's been in... ever, Rose thinks. Two enthusiastic Red Squadron pilots hung colored lamps along the limestone walls, making the pale little brightflyers reflect gold and blue light. The mouthwatering smell of Hosnian curry fills the air, to most of the Resistance's delight. At this point, they'd eat a tauntaun if it wasn't made of polystarch and veg-meat. At a table in the far corner, Rey is already on her third helping. Beside her, General Organa eats more sedately, looking out over the room with unmistakable contentment.

Rose catches sight of Poe and waves him over. He makes a beeline for her, with Finn close behind. "Hey, Commander. Any luck with the ration synthesizer?" 

Rose would just as soon forget her promotion ever happened, but they have bigger problems right now. "Two of the capacitors have melted, the assembly matrix shattered, and the power cells started a fire. We have to buy another one."

Poe grimaces. "With what money?"

"We don't have the supplies or the time to keep cooking for all these people," Rose tells him. "We need a ration synthesizer, and we need it yesterday."

Finn looks around to check for eavesdroppers, then leans in. "What if I knew where we could steal it?"

Poe shoots a reflexive, panicked glance in General Organa's direction. "We are _not_ infiltrating a First Order ship again."

"Not a ship. A planet." Finn looks more alive than she's seen him since Crait. "Zarisa and Delya think we can find other stormtroopers that are on our side. We'll get the ration synthesizer and rescue more defectors at the same time."

"What if there aren't any?" Rose's voice comes out small and scared, but... whatever, she _is_ scared. The last time the three of them gambled like this, the First Order decimated the Resistance. The Resistance might rebuild, but they will never, ever repair the loss.

"Then at least we get the ration synthesizer," Finn says. "This time, we're gonna have contingency plans, and we'll definitely talk to the General first."

Poe's stance relaxes. "Okay. Let's go talk contingencies."

"You two go ahead," Rose says. "I need to eat."

She watches Poe and Finn go. Poe has one casual hand between Finn's shoulder blades, Finn leans toward the touch, and Rose bites back a grin.

Rose is stepping away from the buffet line with a full tray when C-3PO's voice carries through the cave. "Senator Casterfo, I really must insist that you eat something." Next to the protocol droid, the onetime youngest senator in the New Republic spears a bite of food with his fork, but doesn't lift it to his mouth. "General Organa has tasked me with your recovery. After eight standard years of imprisonment, your daily nutritional requirements include six units of protein, thirteen units of carbohydrates, between four and six units of fat..."

Casterfo's shoulders hunch. Everyone in the clearing stares. The new arrivals from Halcyon look resigned. Do they think Casterfo is getting special treatment because he's important? The truth is more complicated and would sound like an excuse anyway, but maybe...

Before Rose can overthink it, she hurries over. _Talk like you're Poe_ , she tells herself, and she pitches her voice so that it will ring out. "Threepio, General Organa has a message for you. Now that you've worked with Casterfo for a few weeks, you're officially ready to help _all_ the former prisoners."

C-3PO brings his golden hands to his cheeks. "Oh, how wonderful! Excuse me, Senator. It seems there are many others requiring my assistance."

The droid bustles off, and Rose drops into the seat across from Casterfo. With a fervent, slightly crazed look in his bright blue eyes, he says, "Thank you."

"Sorry about Threepio," Rose says. "He means well."

"Oh, I know. It was comforting at first. He hasn't changed a bit." Casterfo's smile is small but real. "I don't believe I've had the pleasure."

"Commander Rose Tico." She sticks out a hand.

Casterfo shakes it with a firm grip. His hair has gone gray and fine lines etch his pale face, but it's from prison, not age. "I've seen you before. You were there last month, when Leia found me."

Rose hadn't even spoken to Casterfo then. They only overlapped in the safe house for a day or two. Rose was preparing for her next mission; Casterfo was all skin and bones and skittishness and stuck close to Leia's side. "I'm surprised you remember." 

"Really? I'm not." Casterfo's smile turns wry. Rose blinks at him. "That was quick thinking just now."

"Everyone here is equal," Rose says firmly. "Threepio should have been helping everyone before now." She hears herself and quickly backtracks. "That is, I'm sure General Organa meant to let him know, but she's had so many things on her mind..."

Casterfo washes down a bite of curry with a gulp of water. "No, you're right. She blames herself for what happened to me, even though she shouldn't. The fault was mine."

"No one deserves eight years in a First Order prison." Rose figures Casterfo knows that, but he needs to believe it.

"I don't regret opposing the First Order, but I was inexcusably sloppy about it." Behind Casterfo's light tone, Rose senses a steel door, closed and locked. "Leia still thinks I can be useful, at least. I'm meant to help her think about what comes after."

Rose leans forward, drawn toward the hope of _after_ like a brightflyer toward the sky. "You mean after the war."

Casterfo straightens his shoulders, blue eyes alight with the same hope and purpose. All at once, Rose sees who he was before, and why his people elected him to the New Republic Senate when he was only twenty-four. "Defeating the First Order isn't the end. We must build something better afterward. Not just an end to tyranny, but the beginning of peace and justice."

A jolt of recognition makes Rose's breath catch. "Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love."

"Exactly," Casterfo says. "Well, probably some fighting. Prison was dreadful."

Rose can't even imagine. "I'll allow it."

#

Rey's sanctuary is a small offshoot of the cave system, where stalactites form concentric circles on the ceiling and a second exit leads back toward the stairs. Finn sits on her makeshift nest of pillows and blankets, eyes closed. Rey kneels behind him with her hands over his shoulders, probing with the Force for the source of his headache. "Any different?"

"Not yet." Finn reaches up to pat Rey's hand. "You're trying something for the first time. It's okay if it takes a while."

Luke could have done it. Rey grits her teeth against the fresh wave of grief.

Poe ducks into the little cave. "Rey's working on Force healing," Finn says.

Poe grimaces in sympathy. "Headache again?" Finn nods. "Any chance I can go next? My neck's been killing me."

"Rey isn't a healer droid—" Finn starts.

Rey holds out a hand, and he goes quiet. A feeling pulls at her sternum, the Force beckoning her to follow. "Poe, sit down beside Finn." She moves to sit facing them both. They all join hands, though Finn is oddly hesitant to curl his fingers around Poe's.

Rey closes her eyes, and the braided threads of their connection swirl around her. She sees the shared worries that keep them up at night, the dangers they will face, the friends they have lost, and all the mistakes they have made. The braid gains threads as she traces its length. She sees Leia, Rose, the stormtroopers from Halcyon, Poe's squadron, her long-gone friends on Jakku. In the distance, Kylo Ren shudders in his sleep, with a gossamer-fine thread tethering him to Leia and a tangled one leading back to Rey. Everywhere, the threads hum with fear and hope.

Rey searches for the places where Poe's and Finn's fears end and hers begin, but then she understands. The people and the circumstances shift from one person to another, but their fears are one.

In her voice, someone says, "Be with me."

Rey opens her eyes. She is hovering an inch above the ground, loose rocks and scattered pillows floating around her.

Finn touches his temple, feather-light. "It worked." Poe just gazes at her with wide eyes and a slight smile. The realization strikes Rey, sharp and hot as her lightsaber: Poe and Finn will follow her anywhere, even though she has never in her life made a plan that actually worked. All she has is the Force, a power she could never earn.

The peace she grasped within the Force fades like a dream. She's awake now, and she knows what she has to do.

To distract Finn and Poe, Rey jumps to her feet and pushes herself into a handspring. On the handstand, the Force cushions her above her friends' heads. She stretches out her fingers, messes up their hair, and flips forward to land on her feet.

"Hey!" Poe protests. He reaches up with nimble fingers and sorts his hair into its usual position.

Finn's hair didn't budge. He swats Poe's arm. "Calm down, man. Your hair's a mess anyway."

"It's an _artful_ mess. Completely different."

Finn stands and gives Rey a gentle, knowing look. "What's going on?"

Rey has stalled for long enough. "I saw him on Halcyon. The bond is still there."

"You saw Ren?" It takes truly bad news to make Poe forget his hair. Rey opens her mouth to apologize for coming back to Ajan Kloss. He cuts her off. "Are you okay?"

That's not important right now. "If he sees my surroundings, he'll find the base. I'm leaving tomorrow."

"We don't have ships to spare," Poe says with a bright smile. Rey steels herself to argue, but he isn't done. "Luckily, you can come with Finn and me. We're leaving, too."

Finn sits up straighter. "We are?"

Poe's grin sharpens. "Leia gave us the go-ahead."

Finn's whoop echoes off the walls, and Rey can't help but smile. She would follow them anywhere, too.

#

Early the next morning, the Resistance leadership gathers in their strategy room on the _Tantive IV_. Poe catches himself fidgeting and makes his hands fists until the rest of him relaxes. He's addressed larger crowds than the one in front of him now: twenty-odd people with half a dozen species among them, gathered around the holo-table in the middle of the room. Finn is right beside him. Rose is at the edge of the group, still unused to being in command.

Poe sympathizes. In the wake of his mutiny, he feels like he's starting over. Leia still believes he can lead, but every time he asks for the Resistance's trust, he wonders yet again whether he'll let them down.

Rose is counting on him to get that ration synthesizer. Everyone on the base is, whether they know it or not. And Leia stands off to one side, tacitly approving this speech. Poe gives her his best smile. He mostly doesn't look at her cane, propped against the wall behind her, or how C-3PO is standing closer to her than he used to.

The room goes quiet, and Poe begins. "As you know, our ration synthesizer broke down yesterday. We can forage in the jungle for the time being, but the more time it takes to feed everyone, the less time we have to prepare for the next battle. We need another synthesizer, and as usual, we need more people. Luckily, we know where to find both."

He gestures at the holo-table, which shows the room a dull brown moon. Noxious clouds swirl in its atmosphere, and a ring of debris orbits the equator. "Cymoon 1."

"It's a junkyard," someone says.

"Under the Empire, it was," Poe replies. That's from Leia's diplomacy lessons: correcting someone works best if you start by agreeing partway. "But they had factories there, too. The First Order has rebuilt and expanded them. As we've seen on other worlds, they have prisoners and slaves doing the actual work and stormtroopers guarding them."

"How many stormtroopers?" asks Charth Brethen, a purple-skinned Twi'lek.

"About three hundred."

The smuggler Nien Nunb steeples his fingers. "We're fighting our way past three hundred stormtroopers for one machine?"

Poe nods at Finn, who steps forward. "No. We're getting the stormtroopers to fight for us." Their audience murmurs skeptically at that. Even Rose frowns. "Hear me out," Finn insists. "Cymoon 1 is the worst posting in the galaxy. Trainees get sent there as a punishment. It's miserable, dirty, and boring. The First Order's talk of glory and order feels pretty hollow once they're knee-deep in garbage. I spent a year there before I went to Jakku." He pauses for effect. Poe, knowing what's coming next, can admire the conviction in every line of Finn's face. "And when I went to Jakku, I walked away."

Admiral Statura, a dark-eyed human with closely cropped gray hair, is one of the old guard—the remnant that's left, anyway. Poe needs him on board. "All of them won't join you," Statura says. "Any defectors will need to fight their way out." Poe has an answer to that ready, but Statura isn't done. "And the odds of remaining undetected are—"

C-3PO has calculated that, of course. "Six-point-three million to one, Admiral."

Well, there goes Poe's reply.

Statura nods graciously at the droid. "I may know where to find suitable reinforcements. The First Order's records show that a certain company of stormtroopers was killed in action, but the so-called 'action' was in a village with no defenses. Company 77 didn't die. They left the First Order, or tried to. We recently traced forty survivors to Kef Bir." He looks at Finn. "If you ask them, maybe they'll be willing to join the fight."

Poe flicks a hand, and the holo zooms out to show the whole galaxy, with Cymoon 1 near the Core worlds and Kef Bir on the other side of the Outer Rim, near Endor. "We'd lose a day, maybe two. But it's worth it to get more defectors out alive and to keep our people safe." His thoughts whir through the new possibilities. "We'll take two ships. I'll command the Falcon and take my team straight to Kef Bir. Rose, you have the Spectral. Get Rey where she needs to go, then meet us on the outer edge of the Cymoon system. After we land, whatever happens, you're gonna get that ration synthesizer and bring it back here. How does that sound?"

The room assents. Rose's nod is a little shaky, but that's okay. Although Rose may not know it, she has a Poe Dameron Pep Talk in her future. She'll be fine.

Senator Casterfo clears his throat and turns to Leia. "General, I'd like to volunteer for this mission. If I'm going to help build what comes after, I need to see what the galaxy looks like now."

Leia nods slowly. Poe could be imagining the infinitesimal tightening of her shoulders, or how the lines on her face deepen at the thought of yet another loss. But he knows he isn't.

He'll tell Rose to wrap Casterfo up tight. Then Poe notices the intent, not-quite-smiling way Rose is looking at the senator, and he thinks maybe he doesn't have to.

#

Rey hurries out to the starfighter landing zone, a small pack over one shoulder. Rose is almost ready to leave. Just a few minutes more, and the Resistance base will be safe from her too-open mind.

"Rey," Maz Kanata says at her side.

Rey stumbles to a stop. She hadn't even noticed Maz approaching. "I'm sorry, I forgot to say goodbye."

"You've been avoiding me," Maz says, rather than politely ignoring the lie, as any decent person would do. "When you find your new apprentices, what will you teach them?"

If Rey doesn't tell the truth, Maz will poke and pry, and there's no _time_. "I can't teach them. The best I can do is shelter them from Kylo Ren."

Maz's gaze is more piercing than it has any right to be, coming from behind those enormous glasses. "Ben Solo was destined to help you. He may yet."

Every muscle in Rey's body is tense with the effort of keeping back her fury—mostly at Kylo Ren, and a little at Maz for believing in him when Rey can't bear to. " _Kylo Ren_ rejected the Light. The next time we meet, he'll try to kill me."

"Child of the stars, I never said to drop by for a visit. If only you had some kind of psychic bond..." Maz shrugs, a quick flick of her rounded shoulders, and walks away. "Oh, well!"

Either Maz knows everything, or she has finally, truly gone mad. Rey stares after her and decides that it's both.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ransolm Casterfo first appeared in the tie-in novel _Bloodline_ by Claudia Gray. My version of the character is several years younger, but I'm faithful to Gray's vision on the more important point: Tom Hiddleston would play him in this movie.
> 
> [More notes are on my tumblr](https://fictionalverity.tumblr.com/post/627397380449402880/fic-meta-rise-of-the-galaxy-chapter-3-notes), including casting for Delya and Zarisa and photos of my inspiration for the Resistance base. Next time: Kylo lays a trap, a stranger is not who she seems, and Rey gets in a fight.


	4. Chapter 4

Rey and her team are flying the _Spectral_. She's a light freighter like the _Millennium Falcon_ , but more angular to port and starboard, and without as many upgrades. The pilot, a Lieutenant Pava, gives Rey the rundown while Rey familiarizes herself with the co-pilot controls.

"She's not as heavily armed, and the hyperdrive isn't as fast, but she won't fall apart without warning, either," Pava continues. She gives Rey a sideways glance. "You okay?"

Rey smiles, painfully aware that it isn't convincing. "I'm fine. Thank you, Lieutenant Pava."

Pava snorts. "Call me Jess. Poe only uses my rank when he's mad."

Rey raises her eyebrows. "He said he trusts you absolutely."

"Well." Jess's lips quirk upward. "I don't make him mad unless I have to."

Jess seems like Poe's kind of person. This time, Rey's smile is real.

Through the viewport, the stars become streaks of white light as they make the jump to hyperspace. Unease poisons Rey's awe at the sight—a stubborn sense that she's too far and going farther from where she should be. She's felt it ever since the _Falcon_ lifted off, leaving her behind.

She's being ridiculous. She'll see them soon.

In the common area, Rose is playing chess with Casterfo. They're both so focused on the board that neither looks up when Rey walks in.

Casterfo moves a white piece shaped like a bantha, with four thick legs and swirling horns. "Check." Without a word, Rose moves a black pointy piece halfway across the board to take Casterfo's bantha. Casterfo blinks. "Er, all part of my plan. The very clever plan that can still work. I think."

To Rey's left, Kylo Ren says, " _He's_ your political strategist?"

Rey flees the common area and doesn't stop until she's safely in her quarters, with the door closed and locked behind her. " _Go away!_ "

Kylo leans against her door, the casual posture at odds with his stare. "I thought you might like to know that my Knights are on their way to Canto Bight. They're tracking down a new Force user: Temiri Blagg."

He's telling the truth. Rey can feel it through the bond. "What do you want?"

"I told you what I want. What will _you_ do with Temiri Blagg?" Kylo Ren's gaze burns like scrap metal under the desert sun. "We can teach all of them. We can get it right this time."

A year ago, Rey lost her common sense to the fizzy, unfamiliar feeling of his intent and attention focused on her alone. Kylo wasn't lying to her, and that was enough. Rey believed him. Now her bone-deep sense of his conviction leaves her unsettled and vaguely ill. "Teach them what? To murder everyone who loves them?"

Kylo takes a long time to answer. Rey senses him sifting through his options, setting aside snarky comebacks and digging for something real, whatever that means to him. He says, "To be who they really are."

Rey squashes a twinge of disappointment. What did she expect? "You can't teach them that."

Kylo raises his eyebrows. "Think what you want."

The condescension in his voice, the way he literally looks down his nose at her, how his walls go back up at the mildest contradiction—Rey's burning fury goes nova. She grips the front of Kylo's shirt and slams him into the sterile wall of his study. When his eyes widen, the white light inside her is pleased. "I will never join you. I never want to see you again."

"Shut me out, then. You know how."

"The dark side." Indecipherable whispering rises like the wind, drawn by Rey's anger. The dark is always close and eager, always offering her everything. Rey is four inches and four hundred light-years from the living warning of how much it takes in return.

But this is bigger than the two of them. The Resistance's security and her friends' lives are at stake. Rey can call on the dark side just this once. To keep Kylo Ren out of her head, it's a risk she has to take.

The shadow of uncertainty dims Kylo's cold fire, and through the bond, he feels afraid...

It's gone, or it was never there to begin with. Though Rey knows Kylo Ren won't waver, her heart is still looking for something that isn't there.

The dark leaps to her hand when Rey beckons. She smiles at her enemy, showing her teeth. "A Jedi lets go of attachments. You're the perfect place to start."

#

In the slums of Canto Bight, the last ordinary minute of the day ends when the door to the Blagg family's house slams open, rattling the clay walls. A hulking, masked figure in black armor fills the doorway.

Root vegetables hang in mesh bags above a sink and stove along one wall. Three mattresses are stacked neatly against another. In the middle of the room, a bald young woman with dark eyes and light brown skin waits alone.

Vicrul Ren steps inside. "Are you Temiri Blagg?"

The smallest of smiles plays at the woman's mouth. In a low, musical voice, she replies: "You want me? Come and get me."

She dashes to the open window, vaults out, and runs.

Vicrul snarls in frustration. "Split up! We'll cut her off."

He and Kuruk bound after her. Only Ap'lek Ren hesitates: the woman's reply was not precisely an answer.

Ap'lek follows his brothers. He doesn't care whether they're really chasing Temiri Blagg. If Kylo is right, then either way, the Jedi girl will try to stop them.

#

Vicrul Ren sprints through a market, with Ap'lek close behind him. Droids and people scurry. Any who aren't fast enough meet Vicrul's scythe. Maybe they die, maybe they don't. Maybe he pulverizes a cart of tanga fruit when he lands on it and leaps off. The Blagg girl is faster than he expected, and far enough ahead that he can only sense the edge of her fear.

From his vantage point atop the tallest building in the sector, Kuruk Ren sees the Jedi coming first. A light freighter screams toward them, flying perilously low over the rooftops. The pilot controls it with grace and precision... and surely the Force. She would crash otherwise. Kuruk follows the freighter's path through the scope of his plasma rifle. "The scavenger is here."

(He's right, though not for the reason he thinks. Jessika Pava is flying the _Spectral_.)

Ap'lek Ren's visor bears a stylized skull, jaw open in a grimace or a scream. He stops and looks up. He picks a battleground. In his quiet monotone, he says, "Cover me, Kuruk."

With practiced ease, Ap'lek climbs the side of his chosen building, jumping and swinging from one foothold to the next. He reaches the sharp apex of the roof, which bends and slopes in unpredictable ways, by turns smooth and craggy. Yes, this will do.

"No one mind me," Vicrul growls. "I'm just chasing our _actual target_ —"

Ap'lek switches his comm off and activates the smoke canister at his waist, blanketing the roof with white smoke. Directly above him, the Jedi girl leaps from the freighter, and he doesn't care about anything except making her bleed.

When she lands, Ap'lek can see her perfectly through the smoke—his most reliable Force talent. The scavenger takes a precious second to find her footing, and another to stare pointlessly through the thick fog. He draws his vibro-ax and prepares to strike her down.

#

The fog surrounds Rey completely. She shuts her eyes and lets the Force guide her—and not a moment too soon. She dodges the Knight's ax when it's inches from her face and strikes back with her lightsaber. He jumps backward. Rey might have nicked his armor, but nothing more.

Rey hears a noise to her right and sweeps her lightsaber at empty air, even as another blow comes at her from the left. The fog is affecting her hearing, too. She can close her eyes, but how can she stop up her ears?

 _Be with me_ , the light side says, and Rey obeys.

Well, almost. The dark pulses in the back of her mind, keeping Kylo Ren away.

It's enough for now. The Force is in Rey, and she in it; she is the roof below and the sky above. She is her lightsaber. She is her enemy, armor and ax, bloodlust and brokenness.

Rey points her lightsaber straight forward. "Ap'lek Ren."

He falters. "How—"

"I'm sorry," Rey says. She drives her lightsaber into his heart.

Ap'lek falls and slides off the roof. Beyond the fog, Rey hears shouts of surprise, followed by a dull thump. She breathes hard, coming back to herself, then climbs to the ground and takes off running. How is she going to find Temiri Blagg? They could be anywhere.

Half a breath after forming the thought, she comes upon a market. Its carts and stalls have been smashed to splinters, and a dozen casualties either clutch at severed limbs or lie eerily still. Two medics rush in, with healer droids beeping and whistling behind them.

Rey stares at the wreckage. "Follow the chaos," she decides, and keeps running.

The trail leads her back up to the roofs. No sooner has Rey reached the top than a plasma bolt streaks toward her. Rey blocks it with her lightsaber and finds its source: a Knight of Ren in a sniper's crouch, high above her and two hundred meters to the east.

Undeterred, Rey keeps pursuing her quarry, blocking the sniper's bolts with her lightsaber as she runs over the rooftops. In the distance, she sees them. Another Knight of Ren leaps from one rooftop to the next, with a cloak of reptilian skin billowing behind him. Further ahead, a smaller figure sprints for their life.

Rey gives everything she has to run faster still. The smaller figure—a young woman—pauses on the edge of a flat rooftop. Rey is close enough now to hear the Knight shout: "Don't you want to know why we're here?"

Rey closes the rest of the distance. She can still save Temiri Blagg. She'll put herself between the Knight and Blagg, and then—

"Not really!" the woman calls back. She steps off the rooftop into empty space.

Before the Knight can turn his attention to Rey, she clambers down to the ground and runs to the street ahead. Blagg lies in a crumpled heap. A crowd gathers around her.

Rey presses a hand to her mouth and wills herself to stop shaking. Jedi Masters don't scream. They don't get angry. They aren't afraid.

The Knight of Ren looks down at the scene from the roof. The crowd stares back up at him, united in silent condemnation. He turns and goes.

Two burly Cloddograns with short, porcine tusks pick Blagg up with surprising gentleness and carry her northward. The crowd follows and swells as more people join, until there are hundreds of people—humans, Abednedo, mossy-headed Palandags, and others Rey doesn't even recognize. Keeping as close to Blagg as she can, Rey moves with the crowd. Their care and their defiance wrap around her. Blagg isn't alone, and neither is she.

#

Kuruk Ren nearly has to sit on Vicrul to keep him from going after the scavenger immediately. Instead, they regroup aboard their ship, the _Night Buzzard_ , where Kuruk sends Kylo an urgent holo. "Temiri Blagg chose to die rather than join us. The scavenger arrived too late to interfere, but... Master, Ap'lek is dead."

Even said aloud, it still feels strange. Ap'lek was his fellow Knight, closer than a brother, for almost twenty years. How many times had Kuruk watched through the sights of his sniper rifle while Ap'lek planted his traps and smoke bombs? How many rivers of blood ran fast and thick because Ap'lek was among the Knights of Ren?

Kylo's face remains as inscrutable as his old mask. "I assume her arrival and Ap'lek's death were connected."

"Yes, Master. She killed him." Does the girl know that she's as good as dead? Kuruk hopes so. He wants her to know the Knights of Ren are coming for her. United in their rage, their brotherhood will—

"A shame." Kylo doesn't sound sorry. "Proceed to Chandrila. We've identified three new Force users there."

What?

Vicrul shoulders Kuruk out of the way. "Where's the scavenger going after this?"

Kylo doesn't answer the question. "Continue seeking out the new Force users. Your orders haven't changed."

Vicrul slams a gloved hand down on the console, perilously close to Kylo's projected face. "She killed Ap'lek. Now we kill her. That's how it works."

"Ap'lek started a fight he couldn't win," Kylo snaps. "If you want revenge, bring him back from the dead and kill him again. Chandrila. _Now_."

The holo ends. Kuruk breaks the silence. "There's something he isn't telling us. Do you think she has some kind of hold over him?"

"Yeah, it's a real mystery," Vicrul drawls.

Kuruk thinks this may be sarcasm, but it _is_ a mystery, and he's wrong about sarcasm most of the time. He enters the coordinates for Chandrila, and the _Night Buzzard_ rises into the sky.

Vicrul takes the co-pilot seat. "I'm sending a message to everyone except the master. The six of us..." With a low growl, he cuts himself off. "The five of us need to talk."

#

The crowd carrying Temiri Blagg's limp body stops at a small house on the edge of town. The door opens, and an older woman with dark hair in a knot at the nape of her neck peers out. Her gaze lands on Blagg, and the blood drains from her face.

The Cloddograns bring Blagg forward. They're too big to fit through the door, so Rey relieves them of their burden and, with help from the older woman, gets Blagg inside. They lay Blagg down on a thin mattress.

"Who are you?" the woman says.

"My name is Rey." More explanation will have to wait. Rey kneels at Blagg's side and feels for a pulse. "She's alive. I'm a..." She can't bring herself to say it. "I have some knowledge of the Force. I can try to heal her. Are you family?"

"I'm Azarra Blagg, her mother. You're a Jedi?"

Her spiritual dilemma is not this family's problem. Rey nods.

"Please do everything you can." Azarra draws back to give Rey room, but Rey can still feel her watching and worrying. This woman would never give her daughter away, no matter how much money Unkar Plutt offered. Rey closes her eyes against a stab of grief and places her hands over Blagg's heart.

It's harder than with Poe and Finn, whose connections to her she already understood. But she can feel Blagg's courage, her kindness, and her love for her family. Blagg's life force floats like a leaf in a churning stream; her wounds pull it toward the depths. Rey holds onto that leaf, delicate and precious. One by one, she stills the currents that would tear it apart.

When she rises from Blagg's side, the light streaming through the window is dimmer than before. Rose and Ransolm are crowded into the tiny house, watching her anxiously. With a start, Rey realizes that she didn't even send the _Spectral_ a comm. "She's going to live," she tells Azarra. "She'll need a while to get her strength back, but—"

Azarra flings her arms around Rey and pulls her close. _"Thank you!"_

Rey cautiously returns the woman's embrace. Rose grins at her, and Rey manages a smile in return.

Azarra draws away. Worry clouds her face again. "The men who did this to Liana... will they be back?"

"We saw their ship leave," Casterfo says. "They're gone."

Liana? Rey says, "I thought your daughter's name was Temiri."

Azarra looks toward a faded tapestry hanging on the back wall. "Temiri? Come out, love. Your sister's going to be fine."

The tapestry shifts. A pale, thin boy with shadows under his eyes edges out into the room. Rey puts his age at about twelve. Azarra places a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "This is Temiri. He's my son and Liana's little brother, or as good as."

Rose's breath hitches. "Liana drew the Knights of Ren away."

They don't know the half of it. Rey swallows hard. "She didn't even let them get close. They would have realized she isn't Force-sensitive."

"And then they would have come back." Temiri's shoulders are bunched tight under his mother's hand. Though the shadows under his eyes belong to someone older, his voice hasn't dropped yet. "I have to go with them, Ma."

"That's not—they won't..." Azarra looks to them all for a denial and blanches when it doesn't come.

Temiri's gaze shifts to Rey. "Did you know Luke Skywalker?"

"I did," Rey says. "He was my teacher."

His smile is like sunlight through the canopy of trees on Ajan Kloss: hard to see, but warm and real all the same. Rey will teach him, as Luke taught her, and they will take up his fight against the rising dark side. She could say that Temiri made the choice for her, this small boy offering her still more unearned faith, but she has known all along what she must do.

"Your mother and sister can come too," Rose says, meaning nothing but the best.

Rey's mouth feels like the days on Jakku when the wind snatched her scarf right off her face, leaving her parched and burnt. "No. A Jedi lets go of attachments."

Temiri's eyes go saucer-wide, but he doesn't hesitate. "Okay."

Rey holds out her hand to him. She doesn't see the irony until he takes it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes for this chapter will be up on [my tumblr](https://fictionalverity.tumblr.com/) soon. Next time, we catch up with Poe and Finn.


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